Commercial Banks Begin Paying Out New Naira Note Despite Limited Supply

On Thursday, December 15, 2022, deposit money banks (DMB) nationwide started issuing the newly designed naira notes to consumers in accordance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) mandate.

In the majority of commercial banks, the new naira notes were distributed over-the-counter alongside the old ones.

The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, assured Nigerians that “it would go round” on December 8 by announcing that banks have received the fresh notes.

However, after visiting certain financial institutions in Lagos and keeping an eye on the exercise on Thursday, consumers noticed that some commercial banks had a restricted amount of new notes.

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Visting financial institutions in Lagos

According to a source, a cashier at a Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) branch stated that due to a short supply, the revised denominations won’t be dispensed tomorrow.

Another employee of the United Bank of Africa (UBA) stated that due to supply limitations, only N2000 of the new notes could be distributed.

“Hopefully by the end of the month, it should be better circulated,” the cashier said.

Emefiele had announced the idea to redesign the largest denominations of the nation’s currency on October 26 in order to manage the money supply and support security forces in combating illicit financial flows.

The governor had stated that the new N200, N500, and N1000 notes will go into effect in the middle of December 2022, and he had advised people to deposit their old notes before January 31, 2023, when they would become unenforceable.

President Muhammadu Buhari then revealed the revised currency notes last month, which sparked a variety of reactions, most of which were unfavourable.

The CBN has instructed deposit money banks and other financial institutions to make sure that weekly over-the-counter cash withdrawals by both individuals and corporate entities do not exceed N100,000 and N500,000, respectively.

The withdrawal limit regulation will go into force countrywide on January 9, 2023, according to the apex bank.

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